Diferenças na produção de foco prosódico contrastivo na fala de adultos e de crianças com aquisição fonológica típica e atípica do Português Brasileiro

This thesis explores the language development of early sequential bilingual (ESB) children. This group speak a language other than English at home (L1) and are introduced to English before the age of five years. Although over 20% of school age children in Australia are ESB, there is limited literature investigating typical language development in this group. This presents a unique challenge for speech-language pathologists (SLPs) working with ESB children. Without a benchmark for typical language development, it is difficult to validly discern atypical development and identify language disorder. This thesis has a strong clinical focus, providing essential foundations for Australian SLPs in an area where none currently exist. It is divided into three sections, each addressing a key area of clinical knowledge: understanding typical development, identifying disordered development, and intervention. The findings are considered within a dynamic interactive processing framework of language (Kohnert, 2008, 2013) which considers interactions between language and the environment, as well as interactions between language and other cognitive systems within the individual. Section 1 presents two papers investigating the features of typical L1 and L2 lexical development in Australian ESB children. First, a longitudinal study investigated L1 and L2 lexical development during the initial stages of L2 exposure. Nine Samoan-English ESB children and matched monolingual controls were assessed four times during their first two years at school. Patterns of ESB lexical learning were identified between and within each language. Importantly, this study highlighted composite scoring as a valid methodology for assessing the lexical skills of ESB children. Data from the longitudinal study revealed a second element of language learning in Samoan-English bilinguals. Receptive and expressive vocabulary tasks evaluated acquisition of four word types: cognates, matched nouns, phrasal nouns and holonyms. Each word type had varying phonological and conceptual difference between Samoan (L1) and English (L2). Results highlighted conceptual distance between L1 and L2 as a key factor in L2 lexical acquisition. The children acquired L2 lexical items earlier if their conceptual representation was similar to that of L1. Words with greater conceptual distance between L1 and L2 (phrasal nouns and holonyms) emerged more slowly. This suggests that L1 influences L2 lexical acquisition in this population. The second section of this thesis investigates how assessment can validly differentiate language difference from disorder in Australian ESB children. Knowledge of typical ESB language development was used as a means to identify disordered language development. A single case series presented the cases of school age sequentially bilingual children. A range of clinically feasible, culturally sensitive assessment techniques were utilised to achieve valid differential diagnosis. The cases suggest two essential standards for evaluating bilingual language development in an Australian context. First, using techniques other than formal assessments is crucial. Formal assessments can provide useful information in a repeated baseline context but are insufficient for diagnosing language impairment in bilingual children. Second, diagnosis requires the implementation of a range of assessment techniques. Considered together, these provide a strong body of evidence outlining a child’s language abilities in their unique cultural context. A further study is then presented outlining the case of an ESB child with an unusual pattern of language disorder. Peter, whose L1 was Vietnamese, came into regular contact with English (L2) at four years of age. Culturally appropriate assessment at eight years of age revealed intact Vietnamese abilities but significantly impaired English. Assessment highlighted poor lexical development, with underspecified lexical templates and inhibited access to lexical knowledge. Peter’s language profile challenges current thinking that language impairment always manifests in both languages of a bilingual child. Possible reasons for the findings are explored with reference to current models of bilingual language. A specific executive functioning deficit could produce difficulty inhibiting L1, which is essential for access to the separately stored L2 lexicon. Such a deficit plausibly accounts for impairment presenting in L2 only. The third and final section of this thesis investigated whether L2 learning in Australian ESB children could be enhanced by bridging conceptual knowledge between L1 and L2. Year One Samoan-English ESB children participated in the study which targeted learning in their regular classroom mathematics program. A control group received all instruction in English. A second, intervention group received lessons in English and Samoan. The material covered and the amount of instruction was the same for each group. The only difference was in the language of instruction. L2 conceptual learning was measured before and after intervention on two instruments. Initial data from each test in isolation indicated no additional benefit for students who received bilingual intervention. Further analysis revealed two interesting patterns of learning between tests. Firstly, all students more easily acquired rote mathematical skills and knowledge than conceptual knowledge and its associated vocabulary. Secondly, there were differences in patterns of learning between groups. The control group demonstrated rote mathematical skills but made limited progress acquiring conceptual knowledge. In contrast, the intervention group demonstrated more balanced learning: acquisition of rote mathematics skills were matched by gains in conceptual knowledge. We propose that bilingual intervention facilitated English word learning, producing improved learning of core skills linked to underlying conceptual knowledge. This thesis considers the language development of ESB children in Australia. While further research is necessary in this important field, the data provide clinical SLPs with a starting point for considering typical and atypical language development in this population. ESB children do eventually acquire native proficiency in L2, but in a manner that follows neither the timeline nor sequence of their monolingual peers. They are, indeed, language different.

The aim of this observational cohort study with a control group is to compare consonant perception skills in quiet and in noise in children with typical language and learning development and in children with dyslexia, with and without Speech Sound Disorder (SSD). Three groups were included: A control group of twenty children with normal reading abilities and typical language development, twelve children with dyslexia and typical language development and thirteen children with dyslexia and SSD. All subjects received a consonant recognition test in three different listening conditions (quiet, + 10 and 0 Signal-to-Noise Ratio). In all test conditions, children with dyslexia and SSD had significantly lower consonant recognition scores than the control group and the children with dyslexia and typical language development (p< .0001). The poorer performances observed in children with dyslexia and SSD may be explained by impaired phonological processing underlying both conditions.

expressive vocabulary of children with normal and deviant phonological development. to determine whether alterations presented by children with phonological disorders occur only at the phonological level or if there are any impacts on lexical acquisition; to compare the vocabulary performance of children with phonological disorders to reference values presented by the used test. participants of the study were 36 children of both genders, 14 with phonological disorders (Study group) and 22 with typical language development (Control Group). The ABFW - Vocabulary Test (Befi-Lopes, 2000) was used for assessing the expressive vocabulary of children and later to compare the performance of both groups. the performance of children with phonological disorder in the expressive vocabulary test is similar to that of children with normal phonological development. Most of the children of both groups reached the benchmarks proposed by the test for the different semantic fields. The semantic field Places demonstrated to be the most complex for both groups. the alterations presented by children with phonological disorder area limited to the phonological level, having no impact on the lexical aspect of language.

To compare children with typical language development (TLD) and evolutional phonological disorder (EPD) regarding the phonemic discrimination and the linguistic performance of language levels (morphological, syntactic, semantic, and perceptual and productive vocabulary). The sample comprised 36 children, aged between 5 years and 7 years and 11 months, with TLD and EPD. Children with EPD were awaiting care in the speech units of two higher education institutions and children with TLD were screened in public schools. For inclusion in the study, the criteria were the following: being authorized by the informed consent and being within the required age group. After the inclusion of children, all subjects underwent the phonemic discrimination test with figures, to the average phrase value test, which assesses the morphosyntactic and semantic/lexical aspects, and the expressive vocabulary test. For statistical evaluation of the influence of variables, Spearman's nonparametric correlation coefficient was used, and for comparison between the groups regarding evaluation performance, Mann-Whitney test was used. Only children with EPD showed influence of phonemic discrimination in other linguistic levels. In addition, a significant difference was observed between the performances of both groups in relation to the phonemic discrimination, vocabulary, and all levels assessed in the questions and description modality. The comparison between both groups showed a statistically significant difference in phonemic discrimination and morphosyntactic and lexical/semantic development, with better performance in the TLD group.

International Research in Child Language Disorders

The literature reports contradictory results regarding the influence of visual cues on speech perception tasks in children with phonological disorder (PD). This study aimed to compare the performance of children with (n = 15) and without PD (n = 15) in audiovisual perception task in voiceless fricatives. Assuming that PD could be associated with an inability to integrate phonological information from two sensory sources, we presumed that children with PD would present difficulties in integrating auditory and visual cues compared to typical children. A syllable identification task was conducted. The stimuli were presented according to four conditions: auditory-only (AO); visual-only (VO); audiovisual congruent (AV+); and audiovisual incongruent (AV-). The percentages of correct answers and the respective reaction times in the AO, VO, and AV+ conditions were considered for the analysis. The correct percentage of auditory stimuli was considered for the AV- condition, as well as the percentage of perceptual preference: auditory, visual, and/or illusion (McGurk effect), with the respective reaction time. In comparing the four conditions, children with PD presented a lower number of correct answers and longer reaction time than children with typical development, mainly for the VO. Both groups showed a preference for auditory stimuli for the AV- condition. However, children with PD showed higher percentages for visual perceptual preference and the McGurk effect than typical children. The superiority of typical children over PD children in auditory-visual speech perception depends on type of stimuli and condition of presentation.

Investigation of auditory processing disorder and language impairment using the speech-evoked auditory brainstem response

Association between language development and auditory processing disorders

The personal narratives of Spanish-speaking children with typical and impaired language development were compared across several narrative features. Thirty-nine eight- to eleven-year-old children produced narratives in English and in Spanish. Children with typical language development produced longer narratives in both English and in Spanish than children with impaired development. Narratives in Spanish produced by children with typical language development contained more actions and orientation than those produced by the children with language impairment. Significant correlations between the English and Spanish narratives were obtained for number of utterances, orientations, and actions. Bilingual aspects of narration and clinical applications are presented.

Purpose Core vocabulary lists are frequently used to select vocabulary for early symbolic communicators who require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). The current study extended existing work by investigating how core vocabulary lists overlap and diverge from typical language development. Method We investigated when the words on seven core vocabulary lists emerge in typical language development, the composition of the lists based on their parts of speech, and how the composition of the words on the lists compare to the MacArthur Bates Communication Development Inventories (CDI). Result On average, the words on the seven core vocabulary lists appear after the second year of life in children with typical spoken language development (25, 27, 37, 45, 47, 50, and 66 months). Verbs were the most prevalent part of speech in all but one of the core vocabulary lists. Core vocabulary words made up only a small percentage of words on the CDI. Conclusion The words on the core vocabulary lists do not emerge until later points in typical lexical development. Focussing on core words when working with early symbolic communicators who require AAC may lead to limited and variable lexicons with wide gaps.

Language is a multidimensional construct from prior to the beginning of formal schooling to near the end of elementary school. The primary goals of this study were to identify the dimensionality of language and to determine whether this dimensionality was consistent in children with typical language development from preschool through 5th grade. In a large sample of 1,895 children, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted with 19-20 measures of language intended to represent 6 factors, including domains of vocabulary and syntax/grammar across modalities of expressive and receptive language, listening comprehension, and vocabulary depth. A 2-factor model with separate, highly correlated vocabulary and syntax factors provided the best fit to the data, and this model of language dimensionality was consistent from preschool through 5th grade. This study found that there are fewer dimensions than are often suggested or represented by the myriad subtests in commonly used standardized tests of language. The identified 2-dimensional (vocabulary and syntax) model of language has significant implications for the conceptualization and measurement of the language skills of children in the age range from preschool to 5th grade, including the study of typical and atypical language development, the study of the developmental and educational influences of language, and classification and intervention in clinical practice. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.5154220.

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) show relative weaknesses on rhythm tasks beyond their characteristic linguistic impairments. The current study compares preferred tempo and the width of an entrainment region for 5- to 7-year-old typically developing (TD) children and children with DLD and considers the associations with rhythm aptitude and expressive grammar skills in the two populations. Preferred tempo was measured with a spontaneous motor tempo task (tapping tempo at a comfortable speed), and the width (range) of an entrainment region was measured by the difference between the upper (slow) and lower (fast) limits of tapping a rhythm normalized by an individual’s spontaneous motor tempo. Data from N = 16 children with DLD and N = 114 TD children showed that whereas entrainment-region width did not differ across the two groups, slowest motor tempo, the determinant of the upper (slow) limit of the entrainment region, was at a faster tempo in children with DLD vs. TD. In other words, the DLD group could not pace their slow tapping as slowly as the TD group. Entrainment-region width was positively associated with rhythm aptitude and receptive grammar even after taking into account potential confounding factors, whereas expressive grammar did not show an association with any of the tapping measures. Preferred tempo was not associated with any study variables after including covariates in the analyses. These results motivate future neuroscientific studies of low-frequency neural oscillatory mechanisms as the potential neural correlates of entrainment-region width and their associations with musical rhythm and spoken language processing in children with typical and atypical language development.

Endogenous oscillations reflect the spontaneous activity of brain networks involved in cognitive processes. In adults, endogenous activity across different bands correlates with, and can even predict, language and speech perception processing. However, it remains unclear how this activity develops in children with typical and atypical development. We investigated differences in resting-state EEG between preschoolers with developmental language disorder (DLD), their age-matched controls with typical language development (TLD), and a group of adults. We observed significantly lower oscillatory power in adults than in children (p < 0.001 for all frequency bands), but no differences between the groups of children in power or hemispheric lateralisation, suggesting that oscillatory activity reflects differences in age, but not in language development. The only measure that differed between the children's groups was theta/alpha band ratio (p = 0.004), which was significantly smaller in TLD than in DLD children, although this was an incidental finding. Behavioural results also did not fully align with previous research, as TLD children performed better in the filtered speech test (p = 0.01), but not in the speech-in-babble one, and behavioural test scores did not correlate with high-frequency oscillations, lateralisation indices, or band ratio measures. We discuss the suitability of these resting-state EEG measures to capture group-level differences between TLD/DLD preschoolers and the relevance of our findings for future studies investigating neural markers of typical and atypical language development.

We explore children’s perception of their own speech – in its online form, in its recorded form, and in synthetically modified forms. Children with phonological disorder (PD) and children with typical speech and language development (TD) performed tasks of evaluating accuracy of the different types of speech stimuli, either immediately after having produced the utterance or after a delay. In addition, they performed a task designed to assess their ability to detect synthetic modification. Both groups showed high performance in tasks involving evaluation of other children’s speech, whereas in tasks of evaluating one’s own speech, the children with PD were less accurate than their TD peers. The children with PD were less sensitive to misproductions in immediate conjunction with their production of an utterance, and more accurate after a delay. Within-category modification often passed undetected, indicating a satisfactory quality of the generated speech. Potential clinical benefits of using corrective re-synthesis are discussed.

The Arabic verb system features a nonlinear root and pattern derivational morphology. Previous studies suggest that young Arabic and Hebrew speakers' early verb use is based on semantic complexity rather than derivational morphological structure. The present study examines the role of morphological and semantic complexity in the emergence of the verb derivational morphology in Arabic speaking children with developmental language disorder (DLD) compared to children with typical language development (TLD). Natural language data were collected from native Arabic-speaking children (40 with DLD; aged 4-6 years and 133 with TLD aged 2;6-6;0 [years;months]) using picture-based elicitation tasks, and verbs were coded morphologically for derivational features and for features of semantic complexity. The results showed that children with DLD demonstrated a more limited production of verb patterns, both in types and in tokens, than age-matched children with TLD. Also, children with DLD age 5;0-6;0 were similar in types and tokens of verb patterns to younger children with TLD at the age of 3;6-4 years. Moreover, while children with TLD at the age of 2;6-3 years used a smaller number of verb patterns than older 4;0-5;0 aged children with DLD, the two groups were not different in verb semantics. Finally, the morphological and semantic diversity demonstrated by the children with DLD was similar to the morphological and semantic diversity shown by children with TLD. Our findings support the conclusion that children with DLD and with TLD acquire the derivational verb system in the same pathway and the quantitative lexical differences between the two groups support a delay rather than a deviation from the typical developmental trajectory.